Beet-unloading means



Dec. 29 l 1925.

` J. COMER BEET UNLOADING MEANS Filed July 28l 1925 mw. S

Patented Dec. 29, 1925.

UNITED STATES y JOI-IN COMER, OF OGDEN, UTAH.

BEETUN LOADING MEANS.

Application filed July 28, 1925.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN COMER, a citizen of the United States7 and a resident of Ogden, in the county of'l/Veber and State of Utah, have invented new and useful lmprovenients in Beet-Unloading Means, of which the following is a specification.

rlhis invention relates to improvements in beet unloading means, as employed at a beet sugar factory, and particularly embodies a novel system for concurrently unloading and directly fluming the beets, from one or more of their railroad transportation cars, into the beet sugar factory, and preferably with a substantially continuous and regun lable feeding delivery.

One of the primary objects of the invention is t for ieconomical ends generally, in avoidance of the costly construction and use of high-lines, or elevated railroad car trestles, that are equipped with vlarge receiving bins, or walled compartments therebelow, as now customarily practised for the initial dumping and storage of the beets, and the operations in connection with which require much labor and waste of time, more especially when it is desired to `deliver the beets from said storage bins to the factory.

`Another primary object of the invention is to provide for the more facile fluming of the beets into the factory, both in point of quantity and controlled feed thereof, whereby the delivery into the factory will neither be so fast nor so slow'as tocause either congestion or an under supply, which obviously would hamper or retard operations in the handling thereof in the factory.

The foregoing andvother objects and advantages, however, as well as the manner of accomplishing the same, will be clearly apparent as incidental to the following disclosure, and with these general outlining remarks, therefore, reference will now be immediately had to the accompanying drawings, illustrating a practical embodiment of Y the improved apparatus, inV which drawings Figure 1 is a plan view of my improvements, in plural layout assembly and in association with a double trackage, although it will be understood that a single hopper1 unit might be employed instead of the paired units as shown; and

Figure 2 is a central longitudinal sectional view, taken along` the fai-side track,

and` also illustrating the disposition of beet ,transportation in association therewith,

Serial No. 46,594.

The numeral 5 designates the ground level, and 6 indicates a main beet flume that extends transversely underneath the trackage and leads Vdirectly into the factory, for floating the beets from the unloading station into the factory, the said flume being provided with a suitable flowing water supply, indicated by anvinlet pipe 7.

The numerals 8 and 9 indicate earth-fills or embankments, although they could be in the form of trestle-work, respectively leading to and from a pit surmounting trestle 11, omitted from Figure 1 for the sake 'of clearness of illustration of other parts, under which trestle 11 the flume 6 transversely extends, and is preferably disposed at a position centrally of said pit. The numeral 10 indicates revetments or concrete retaining walls, for the ends of the earth-fills 8 9, which also are theend walls of the aforesaid pit, and 12 and 13 respectively designate the farside and nearside railway tracks which extend along the aforesaid embankments and the pit and flume surmounting trestle 11'. It is to be understood, however, that in the use of the word pit merely employ the same for brevity and convenience, and not in the sense of"a pit strictly speaking, to convey the idea of a substantial space, underneath the trestle 11 and above the plane of the flume 6, for the reception of an especially formed hopper or vhopperunits, which will now be described.

In actual practice, it will be obvious that either one or more of these hopper units may be used, although they are preferably employedin endwise juxtaposed dischargf ing pairs, and two of such pairs or four hopper units being shown in the drawings.

Each of the hopper units embodies upstanding side Walls 14 and 15 and onel end Wall 17, the bottom of the hopper providing for a longitudinal opening or slot 16, and the other end of the hopper being unobstructed or open to function as a discharge end. The end wall 17 and the lower portions of the side walls 14 and l5 preferably flare upwardly, and the side walls 14-15 preferably extend substantially higher than the end wall.17, or higher than the paired trestles 11, so that these side walls will pro ject upwardly beyond the bottom of the railroad ltransportation car that is adapted for location therebetween when discharging its beets'. To this end, the upper portions of the side walls 11i-15, eftend'iiig above the top of the end wall 17, would preferably be disposed at an angle to their lower flaring` n rtions, or in parallel instead of flaring relation.

At an appropriate distance below. vthe opening 1G, of each hopper, there extends an endless conveyor 19, for the full length of the slot 16, and functions as a traveling endwise-discharging bottom for the hopper.

As a mattei' of practice, these endless conveyer bottoms are preferably ofthe well known type of double beaded pan conveyors mounted on side roller-chain supports, which reeve vover sprocket wheels, but as the specific construction thereof forms no part of the present invention, they are simply shown conventionally as conveyor belts supported on end rollers --21 carried by the cross shafts 22 These conveyer elements could `be a part -of the hopper units, by suitably suspending the shafts 22-22-3 from the hopper body, or the hoppers and the conveyors may be independently mounted, in coacting relation, in any, suitable way.

rllhe open ends of 'the hoppers at any event, and hence .the discharging` ends ofthe conveyers 19, are mounted and disposed in endwise relation with reference to pairs thereof, within the aforesaid pit or enlarged space, adjacent-ly of the beet Afloating main flume 6 leading tothe factory, and the shafts 23 at the discharge ends are preferably employed as the drivingshafts for the conveyers, although not necessarily so, the operative surfaces of which conveyors are "aused to Atina-*el towards said flume, as is apparent from the drawings.

ln order that the speed of these `tra'relmg bottoms or conveyors may be appri'i-priately regulated, and hence the discharging feed of the beets from any one or all of thecars being unloaded, dependent upon the needs of the factory at any given time, it is desirable that means be employed for the lindependent operation of each conveyer under `individual regulable control; rllhis, obviously, could be provided for in various ways, but for the purpose of au expedient 'general illustration, and for that purpose only, l have conventionally shown four separate motors 25, say of about vseven and one-half horse power, and each of which motors drives one Vof the shafts 25% Athrough the medium of interposed reduction gearing 26.

Also, lat 27, ll have sim-ply illustratedconrentionally a motor operated drum, or car mover, which through cable means may be employed for hauling the loaded 'railroad beet transportation cars, either singly or in pairs, intoproper unloading position on the trestle-work 11, over a complementary hop per, the nun'ieral 28 designating one of said loaded cars before being hauled into unload.-

ing position, "the numeral '29 designating two of such cars moved to their unloading positions, and the numeral showing in dotted lines an emptied car started down the inclined track, leading from the trestle 11, which `track may be of about a one per cent grade, or suldcient to cause an empty car to travel of Iits own momentum when started.

lt is believed that the operations of yunloading from the cars and direct ftuming of the beets therefrom into the factory will be clearly understood from the drawings and foregoing description, and that it would only be unnecessary description to further enlarge upon the same, but although I have thus fully disclosed `my invention, :it will be understood that l do not wish to unnecessarily limit myself to all of the features eX- actly as disclosed, excepting as they may come within the terms of the claims` or equivalents thereof, or as fairly interpreted in the light of the specification if necessary, for `it is obvious that some alterations might bc made without departing from 'the spi-rit of the invention. t may further be said that, although Figure `2 ofthe draw-ings shows crosse-ties supporting the 'railroad tracks on the trestle-work 1:1, these ties could `be substituted for by suitably supported longitudinal timbers or stringers .for the lengthwise support ofthe track rails, which would allow for the discharge of the beets from the cars, into the hoppers, withoutthe beets being 'bruised by striking cross-ties or becoming wedged therebetween'.

'Having thus fully described my invention, what l claim as new and patentable l. In beet vunloading stations at the factory, embodying trackage for railroad beet transportation cars and a water flume eX- tendin-g from said trackage to `the factory, the combination of an endless conveyer disposed in association with said tra-chage, for the reception of the beet contents from a car on said trackage, and dischargi-ngto said flume, and means for driving lsaid endless conveyor.

2. ln beet unloading stations at the factory, embodying trackage 'for railroad beet transportation cars and a water flume extending from said trackage to the factory,

the Vcombination of la hopper, having a dis-l charge opening, in association with said tracka'ge for the reception of the 'beet contents from a car on 'said trackage, an endless conveyer disposed in association with the discharge opening `of said hopper and discharging lto said flume, and means for driving said endless conveyor.

3. In beet unloading stations at the factory, embodying trackage for 'railroad beet transportation cars and a water fiume extending from underneath said trackage to llU the factory, the combination of a hopper disposed underneath said trackage, Which hopper has a bottom opening, an endless conveyer disposed underneath said bottom opening and discharging to said flume,`and means for driving said endless conveyer.

4. In beet unloading stations at the factory, embodying traclage for railroad beet transportation cars and a Water flume extending from underneath said trackage to the factory, the combination' of a hopper disposed underneath said trackage, which hopper has an elongated longitudinal bottom opening and an open end, an endless conveyer extending along underneath said bottom opening and discharging to4 said fiume at the open end of said hopper, and means for driving said endless conveyer.

In beet unloading stations at the factory, embodying trackage for railroad beet transportation cars and a Water flume eX- tending from underneath said traclage to the factory, the combination of a hopper disposed underneath said trackage, Which hopper has an open end, an elongated longitudinal bottom opening, passing through said open end, and side walls proecting above the sides of said trackage, an endless conveyer extending along underneath said bottom opening and discharging to said flume at thevopen end of said hopper, and means for driving said endless conveyer.

6. In beet unloading stations at the factory, embodying trackage for railroad beet transportation cars and a Water flume eX- tending transversely underneath said trackageV and leading to the factory, the combination of a pair of hoppers disposed underneath said traclage on opposite sides of said flume and extending longitudinally of said trackage, each of said hoppers having an open end located at said fiume and an elongated longitudinal bottom opening passing through said open end, an endless conveyer extending along underneath each of said bottom openings and discharging to said flume at the open end of its complementary hopper, and means for driving said conveyers.

In testimony whereof, I allix my signature.

JOHN COMER. 

